


Defending The Castle In The Sky

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cyborgs, Fire, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Romelle - Freeform, The helmeted rebel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 01:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13283691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: King Alfor fought and died protecting Altea. Queen Fala continued on, armored to the bone.





	Defending The Castle In The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> For H/C Bingo. Prompt was "fire."

Alfor, King of Altea, fought in the skies while she, Queen Fala, led the troops on ground. They fought to stop the Galra, their once-friends, from compromising the castle on land and the castle in the sky. She had refused to leave the planet, but when Emperor Zarkon gave word for Altea to be destroyed, the entire city burned and shattered around her. 

When she awoke, it was to learn her most loyal advisors had taken her aboard a rescue ship. The planet Altea—her homeland—had been completely destroyed. The Castle of Lions had been lost. Last anyone had heard, the king had been slain. 

No one bore news of her daughter, but with no reply from Coran, she could only conclude the worse. 

With her body having been badly burned in the fire, she required extensive surgery to replace her damaged limbs and organs. But as time passed, more organs failed and more limbs needed to be replaced. Pain seared throughout her; in her troubled sleep, impacted by the high levels of analgesics, she imagined her body as Altea, breaking under the Galra’s bombs, the earth splitting open as lava gushed, the whole world splintering, shattering.

She would not allow the pain to sink into her thoughts. 

Zarkon still lived. His terror spread throughout the universe, casting shadows over worlds unnumbered. As pain coiled and and burned within her body, she willed each limb to move, to help those still in the fight, still facing the monster who was once her friend, who had once blessed her on her wedding day, welcomed her child to the world with a gift, who had once drank with them, laughed, who had drawn his blade through her husband’s heart. 

With aching limbs and a shaking fading voice she reached out to others. Offered comfort. Offered her sword and her vow. 

She wore a mask. Went under a different name. Began small. After all, she wasn’t fully sure what her new body could do. 

She fully anticipated she would expire when she had reached Altean old age, if she were lucky enough. 

But the decades passed and she still lived. Altean tech was known for its incredible lifespan. Honerva had been foolish for seeking life in quintessence when Alteans had already achieved it in their technology. She tinkered with her bionic parts. Spite kept her bitter, angry heart beating. For him. And for her. 

Zarkon lived, and so did she. 

And slowly and slowly, more freedom fighters joined her. 

The next time she saw her daughter, her face did not betray any of the emotions that seared through her heart. Her daughter stood, a Paladin and a leader of Voltron, garbed in the mourning colors of Altea in respect for all the fallen soldiers. When they saw each other, face to face, her own daughter addressed her formally and with respect. Her own words were mechanical, her voice long ago replaced with a robotic voice chip. If there was anything about Romelle, her words, or her mannerism, which sparked suspicion in the princess’s mind, she never showed it. 

But now the castle in the sky looms over her head once more, and Romelle’s heart lightens each time she sees it. Though she knows her husband is no longer fighting, she knows Coran had survived and her daughter too. And though they never would know her true identity, for she was afraid speaking of it would shattered her ironclad exterior each time she saw her own daughter, she was glad to continue as their ally. If Allura still wept for her, then it was Romelle—Queen Fala’s—motive to see to her mission’s end.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by two theories: the idea that [Allura's mother is Romelle](http://darkslover.tumblr.com/post/165967823295/theory-alluras-mother-is-romelle) (would certainly explain why she looks like Allura! :D ), and the idea that [the helmeted rebel we briefly meet in Season 4 *is* Romelle](http://darkspellmaster.tumblr.com/post/167030398710/voltron-theory-who-exactly-is-this-helmeted).


End file.
